6 Celebrities With Fibromyalgia You May Not Know About

Celebrities With Fibromyalgia You Need to Know About

Some people have managed to make a name for themselves in Hollywood, the music industry, or big business in spite of their fibromyalgia. Take a look at these six celebrities with fibromyalgia who have been able to rise above the challenges of their fibromyalgia.

Lady Gaga

No celebrity has done more to raise awareness about fibromyalgia than Lady Gaga. She first opened up about living with chronic pain in her 2017 documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two.

Later that year, she tweeted about her fibromyalgia diagnosis, which caused a flurry of international headlines describing life with this illness. Gaga was forced to cancel 10 European shows because of her symptoms.

Most recently, she gave a Vogue interview for their October 2018 edition. Speaking about experiencing trauma and PTSD, Lady Gaga explained the connection between trauma and chronic pain: “I get so irritated with people who don’t believe fibromyalgia is real. For me, and I think for many others, it’s really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder, all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result.”

She describes the unpredictability associated with fibromyalgia symptoms. “Chronic pain is no joke,” Gaga told Vogue. “And it’s every day waking up not knowing how you’re going to feel.”

After searching for an effective fibromyalgia treatment, which she depicts in her documentary, Lady Gaga since she has now found a great team of doctors who are helping her manage her condition.

Sinead O’Connor

Sinead O’Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter, who first became known in the late 1980s for her debut album The Lion and the Cobra. Her struggle with mental illness, which she has described as bipolar disorder, has played out on the public stage.

Sinead took a sabbatical in 2003 from making new music. In a 2005 interview, she explained that her decision had been made in part because of her overwhelming fibromyalgia symptoms.

“Fibromyalgia is not curable. But it’s manageable,” Sinéad told Hotpress. “I have a high pain threshold, so that helps – it’s the tiredness part that I have difficulty with. You get to know your patterns and limits, though, so you can work and plan around it. It is made worse, obviously, by stress. So you have to try to keep life quiet and peaceful. And you have to re-assess what you do – and maybe find another less stressful job, or rehabilitate your same job! Which is kind of what I am trying to do, given that I love singing and that it’s calming. So I want to do that, but to stay out of the parts of it that cause me undue stress.”

Mary McDonough

Mary McDonough is best known for playing Erin Walton in the Homecoming and the Waltons. She has also appeared on Will and Grace, the West Wing, the New Adventures of Old Christine, and has numerous other television credits.

She was eventually diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that affects connective tissue. Over time, she was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia and Sjogren’s syndrome. It’s common for people with fibromyalgia to have other overlapping conditions, especially autoimmune and chronic pain conditions.

Initially, Mary struggled to get accurately diagnosed, “Of course, everyone kept saying, ‘Well you’re crazy. You’re depressed. Go to therapy!’ So it with 10 years of being diagnosed and finally I got to the point where I was in so much pain I couldn’t even lift my daughter.”

Now she is an advocate for body confidence, doing public speaking and leading workshops about helping women develop positive relationships with their bodies. Mary says that today, “My lupus is in remission, it’s something that I deal with every day. I still have a lot of inflammation and that sort of thing, but… I’m healthier than I have been in a long time.”

Next page: three more celebrities with fibromyalgia you probably didn’t know about.

Facebook Comments

They need to speak up more... represent! And def a man needs to step up, fibro kicks my ass daily... existance is pain!

October 8

I feel so bad for ANYONE who has Fibromyalgia. I know how devestating & defeating it feels to live with it, 24/7. It never stops, never goes away, it just gets worse. Year after year.

October 8

If you have it you definitely have more sympathy for others!

October 7

Well, at least I'm in good company! :) I knew about Lady Gaga, but not the others. I wish more folks would speak out so that folks wouldn't think it is "all in our heads." Even some medical professionals have within the past five years or so looked down their haughty and arrogant noses as me …

Fibromyalgia - NewLifeOutlook

October 7

Do you think they have helped with awareness for the condition?

October 7

Omg! I’m not Aware Of it! I would luv to see them Share!

October 7

No

October 7

Out of all of them I just knew about Lady GaGa and I think she could bring more awareness

October 7

No

October 8

Fibromyalgia - NewLifeOutlook Nope

October 7

I have Fibromyalgia its painful very, Sometimes in the morning while trying to get up, I have to really be in a state of mind, at night I have to sleep in long pajama especially at night my body would ach so bad, if cold air hit my body my whole body would ach all night. its hard to sleep in pj…

October 7

Try marijuana it helps

October 7

Tammy Nugent well its not legal in Mobile Al but a lots of people's tell me this, They have the pills marijuana but most doctor prescribe them to cancers patients.

October 7

Oh, yeah, show all the celebrities that have Fibromyalgia and can go to doctors that will give them stronger pain meds and more pills, while someone like me can't get stronger pain pills, even though I am in severe pain at times. I am tired of this. Just because some people decide to use pain meds…

October 7

Marijuana works

October 7

I agree with you. It’s ridiculous that everyone is put in the category.

October 7

The only problem with me and marijuana is that I have heart disease with a defibrillator, so I don't think they would let me take that, but it isn't fair that we who really need either a up in the pain meds or be able to take a stronger pain med and not just for 5 or 10 days. This disease is a lifetime disease and I have osteoarthritis too and that can make the pain I have two or three times worse. So, it is time for doctors to start fighting for those of us that really need these to exist from day to day.

October 8

Tammy Nugent YES!!! I also use Kratom and I haven’t felt better in 20 years....can’t be happier. BTW...I used to live in Brookings, SD...small world, eh? 🤪

October 7

So, regular people have it too but we don’t have doctors like they do to care for them better than regular people. So what’s your point?

October 7

Omg! I Believe “Fibromyalgia” Is An Illness That’s Just Like “Arthritis” & Many Other Diseases That’s “Treatable But Not Curable” It Affects Us All No Matter Of “Nationalism” Or Sex Male Or Female! Another Example Of Connection Of HUMANITY! I Just Wish The “GOVERNMENT” Would…

October 7

Sinead O'Connor was abused so no surprise there. Abuse and or trauma are common.